Chapter 6: "The Circle Part 1"

The door squeaked open to her key, revealing a dark corridor enclosed from daylight by shutters. In the days prior to the attack, Florence Granger intended to wax the troublesome entry, but she never had the chance to attend to it. The whine thus had a mournful tone to it to Hemione's ear. A flick of a switch brought on the lights of the Granger family's suburban home back to life, a feat that came as no surprise to the muggle-born healer Ted Tonks, whom had elected to accompany Hermione on this journey. A bird's call momentarily distracted her, but when she paused to look outside the door, she saw nothing.

They entered the living room with the silence appropriate in a graveyard. A red light flashed upon the telephone indicating several unanswered voice messages, but beyond this indicator of the house resident's absence, it didn't yet seem at all abandoned. This Sunday's copy of the Observer remained on the doorstep and dust hadn't yet accumulated leaving the house as spotlessly clean as its medically minded owners left it. "What will happen to the house?" Asked Hermione, more out of idle curiosity than genuine concern; she was unable to truly care with much larger questions on her mind.

"My guess is that the house will be mothballed until your father recovers, or you are of age. Come to think of it, I ought to disconnect the gas, electronics, and dispose of the foodstuffs. I know a muggle charity that would appreciate the donation of the latter, assuming of course you are fine with that?"

Hermione nodded her acceptance, "Yes, of course, that is sensible… I will get my things." She said and headed to her room as healer Tonks pulled out his wand and went about business of preparing the house for the many quiet years ahead. When the door to her room closed, Hermione was well in mind to seek the comfort of her pillow to cry on, but too many tears passed over her cheeks in the days after the attack, and she had to be strong; if not for herself, then for them. A short sniff did away with her earlier sorrow, and the young girl pressed on with the task of packing her Hogwarts supplies and anything else she needed.

Her room was largely an extension of her character. Books littered most of the available wall space until even the floor and wardrobe contained a few more besides. The latter concealed her growing collection from the magical world from prying muggle eyes. Hermione received her Hogwarts acceptance letter on the 19th of September 1990, too late to attend that year, but early enough for Hermione to make every little bit of pocket money count. Most of the books were consequently unnecessary as far as Hogwarts was concerned, but she packed them all nonetheless, and a few muggle ones besides. Hermione hugged her copy of Hogwarts a History once she found it; she knew it was irrational, and if the Hogwarts Library was anything like this book said it was, there would hardly be any need for them. Books were however static and unchanging objects she could hang onto at this difficult time.

With the question of what books would go with her settled the rest of the packing was a relatively quick affair. When she left her room to ask healer Tonks to shrink her things for her, she was surprised to see him finished with the tasks he had assigned to himself, seated at the dining room table with some tea for the two of them. "Thank you", she muttered and took a sip of her still moderately warm mug.

Healer Tonks smiled, but seemed to struggle with an idea he didn't know exactly how to speak outload. "Miss Granger…Hermione, I understand that none of your extended muggle family are in a position to assume responsibility for your welfare. The McKinnons are excellent guardians, but you do have another alternative. My wife and I have been talking about you lately, and we thought that as our daughter is of age, we would be in a position to take care of you, at least until such a time your father is able to resume the responsibility."

"I…thank you, I don't know what to say," started Hermione, touched by the selfless proposal, but unsure about her feelings towards it. "You do not have to decide now; the option stands whenever you might wish for it. For now, you are welcome to join us for dinner sometime, we would be glad for the company." said Tonks, leaving the table to shrink the various bundles of books and clothes hurriedly packed into every available bag in the house.

"Are you quite finished?" he asked with a raised eyebrow at the sight of the literary plenitude. Hermione for her part didn't notice the slight edge sarcasm in the healer's words and pondered the question seriously. "No, there is something else," she said and rushed to her parent's bedroom. A few moments later, Hermione emerged with yet another book that looked archaic enough to be a magical one, though it was a decidedly muggle artefact. Tonks seemed amused, but his expression softened when he saw the faded title of the book; "The Granger Family Bible", further identified in its sentimental role by the small portrait of a young couple and a familiar toddler attached to it.

"That's it, we can leave," said Hermione and followed Tonks to the front door, casting one final look at her family home. Objectively, she knew that the structure would remain and that perhaps she would one day call it home once more, but in her heart, she keenly felt a sense of loss. Tragedy taught her the bitter lesson that home was not merely a place of residence, but the people that made it special. Never again would she spend the day before Christmas decorating the tree with her mother or, if the worse came to pass, enjoy the long discussions with her father, from matters of ethics to the correct ratio of ingredients in a Pizza Provençale.

Tonks gave her a moment to make her peace, and once he saw she was done, he opened the door for her and then turned his attention to the distribution board. With a flick of the main switch, the lights fell dark once more. Hermione left the dark corridor behind and stepped towards the pavement bathed in the midday sun. In the shadow of one of the neighbourhood's trees, a raven quietly sat on a branch watching as the young witch departed.

"Are you finished yet?" called the aggravated voice of Susan Fenwick, who had impatiently waited for her chance to purchase a wand for several long minutes. "Give Harry a few more moments dear, wand-fitting is a tricky business that can often take a while to get right. My sister took almost an hour to find her match! I often wish that I'd had the opportunity to get my own." Said Edith McKinnon with a wistful sigh.

Harry and Mr Olivanders emerged from behind the stacks of wand boxes dividing up the small shop into impromptu reception and fitting areas. Harry looked at his new wand with a measure of concern, "what does it mean? Why would I get the 'brother' wand of vol, sorry, You-Know-Who?" asked Harry. "The wand may choose the wizard Mr Potter, but it is the wizard who chooses whether to use the wand for good or for ill, more than that I cannot say." Said Mr Olivanders, who seemed erringly exited by the prospect of brother wands rather than apprehensive.

The wandmaker than turned to Mrs McKinnon and her other charge, "another one of your flock Edith? Oh yes, I have seen those piercing dark eyes before in the gaze of another; a rather rigid eleven inches long pinewood and dragon heartstring wand, excellent for duelling. May I inquire of your relation to Benjamin Fenwick?" He said, giving Susan the same eerie look Harry found so discomforting. The girl seemed to try and match it with mixed results. "He was my father, or so I am told," she replied with a huff, giving up the fight to out spook the spook. The wandmaker left for a moment to fetch a box, returning with a wand that matched the description of her progenitor. Susan copied Harry's earlier wave with a bit more speed but was answered with a distinct smash of glass somewhere in the shop before Olivander could get the offended piece of wood out of her hand.

"Most assuredly not, please try to wave the wand a bit more slowly; I would prefer to relieve my wands from customers before they take out their complaints about a mismatch on the shop. Tell me, what do you know of your mother?" Susan shrugged her shoulders, "she was a norm, I don't see how she would matter for a magic wand", she said, much to Mrs McKinnon's annoyance, who unwillingly mouthed the word muggle to the benefit of the slightly confused shop owner. "Oh, but it matters a great deal Miss Fenwick, wands are indeed magical, but they are mostly particular about their partner's character. Where we come from often says a great deal about where we are going." The girl didn't look convinced, "I never knew her, so there isn't anything I can tell you anyway."

Olivander brought another wand but stanched it away as quickly as he'd given it. "Not much to go on I am afraid, so this fitting may take a while. Are there any other children from your establishment in need of a wand today?" he asked Edith. "Only Jim, the son of Dorcas Meadowes, he went with Peter and Tanya to the pet shop, should I bring him?" Olivander stanched another wand out of the hands of the increasingly irritated Susan. "I was sad to hear of her death, sycamore wood with a phoenix core feather 12 ¼ and a bendy sort of flexibility; just what an aspiring researcher would need for experimentation. Yes, do please bring him over, though I suspect that this fitting might not be dissimilar from that of your sister, so you need not rush." "Will you be alright staying here until I return?" asked Edith. "Sure, no problem! I will just stand here, going through wand after wand, and try my best not to lose my sanity!" replied Susan with a rather crazed looking grin. Edith beamed "that's the spirit dear!" she said, and quickly led Harry out of the shop to make their escape.

The two of them emerged on the main street of Diagon Alley, joining the mass of pedestrians roaming the place during rush hour. "Magical Menagerie is only a few blocks away. It shouldn't take us long to get there." Said Edith with the sort of confidence that the fates loved to undercut. Sure enough, an old man with a thick white moustache and a black cloak strode into the street with a serious expression. As suddenly as he emerged, he threw off his dark cloak revealing dozens perhaps even hundreds of small rockets attached to launch pads sown on to his pink woollen bloomers and night shirt that with a sprinkle of a water charm flew sky high, exploding into an amazing display of fireworks. When the smoke around the man settled, gone was the serious expression replaced by a toothy grin; the man was also now dressed in a jester's outfit complemented by a dozen dancing gnomes in similar if much smaller outfits.

"Gather round folks both young and old! I Jubilee Gambol of the ridiculously successful Gambol & Japes Wizarding Joke Shop present the latest in the line of original works guaranteed to bedazzle razzle and otherwise stupefy the imagination; Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks Mark 5! Now equipped with a customizable range finding and built-in double crosser homing charms! Limited supply of first production run only! Get your gallons into the arms race now before everybody else does!"

With these words, a swarm of youths seemed to appear from nowhere, forming a human barrier between Harry, Edith, and the rest of Daigon Alley. "Is this sort of thing normal around here?" asked Harry with bewilderment. Edith laughed with exasperation, "You don't know the half of it, the question is, what are we going to do about it?" The elderly squib opened her handbag and much to Harry's surprise managed to pull out the entire length of a broom from its invisible depths.

"Hop on and hold firm Harry, with all those rockets going up and about, this trip is liable to turn out to be not dissimilar to what Andy informs me his stint in Bomber Command was like." With that, the pair sored into the air, zigzagging above the crowd to avoid the sporadic flak of rockets fired off by impatient hooligans. "When are the quidditch supplies donated by the Holyhead Harpies due to arrive?" shouted Harry trying to make his voice heard amid the explosions. "Sometime tomorrow Harry, why?" asked Edith. Harry let out a cry of fight as a rocket passed over his head that quickly became a bout of uncontrollable laughter when it exploded into a brilliant red rose. "I want to fly like this every day for the rest of my life!" he explained amid giggles of delight that were quickly joined by those of his guardian as they came in to land.

Once Edith and Harry managed to successfully push the broom back into the handbag and looked up at the sign in front of them, Florean Ice Cream, Edith grinned mischievously, "It appears we have overshot our target, but I can't say it is an unappealing detour. What flavours do you usually pick Harry?" she asked but was soon interrupted by another voice calling for that same name. "Hermione?! They let you out already?" exclaimed Harry, surprised to see the girl as she was supposed to be still confined to hospital until later this evening. The girl nodded happily, turning her mouth away from her generous helping of a strawberry, apple, and most importantly, low sugar sorbet, glad to be out and about. "Healer Tonks intervened to get me released earlier than planned to pick up my school supplies," she explained, gesturing towards a wizard Harry identified as healer Tonks from the hospital. Edith soon came by with two servings of ice cream and a larger box with a freezing charm to take home with her.

The four of them remained seated for a few minutes until they all finished their snacks. Tonks then left their company to return to the hospital for his next shift, leaving Hermione in Edith's care as the three of them headed for the pet shop. Common and exotic animals alike called the exhibition glasses home, from household cats to the crabs keeping them at bay with flames emerging from their posteriors. "I would have preferred that we frequent the Owl Emporium, but apart from dear sensible Peter, Tanya is 'keen' on reptilians, and Jim will probably try to get one of those crabs unless I stop him." Sure enough, she went and did just that by almost physically dragging him away towards exit. "Hermione dear, do you happen to have your Hogwarts shopping list with you?" Asked Edith as she turned to leave with her fire happy charge to Olivanders, but Hermione shook her head. "Peter, please take Jim's shopping list and make sure Harry and Hermione have everything they need, Harry hasn't received his Hogwarts letter yet." The older boy accepted the list and a small pouch of gold and turned to address the younger children as Edith turned all her authority towards separating between Jim and a particularly vicious fire crab keen to make the acquaintance of the boy's fingers. "So, you are the new girl, Hermione Granger, hmm that's from The Winter's Tale isn't it?" he asked, much to her delight. "Yes! Not many kids make the connection!"

The tanned boy, though somewhat stoic by nature, couldn't help but return a small smile. "My name is Pierre Ganim, second year Hufflepuff, though most Brits prefer to call me Peter. The boy you saw get dragged out of the shop by our confusingly magical none magical variant of Mary Poppins was James Meadows, usually referred to as Jim or Git depending on how obnoxious he happens to be at the time. The girl gawking at the snakes marked extremely dangerous is none other than my housemate Tanya Ruskowski, and least I get my eyes plucked out, the owl seated on my shoulder is called Maxentius." Sure enough, the eagle owl basked in the attention as if he truly were a Roman Emperor and then flew away to give the rats a scare and impress the she owls.

"Do you have all of your supplies? A wand, textbooks, telescope, cauldron, the lot?" asked Peter, checking out each item as they got to it until only one remained. "Are you interested in getting a pet? The list says you can get an owl, cat, or toad." As if to undermine that statement, the girl called Tanya pressed her head against the display window marvelling at the scales. "So cute!" she exclaimed, though the Snakes didn't seem pleased at being awakened from their nap.

"Oh shucks, its that crazy human again!" said a voice that caught Harry's attention.

"Don't worry about it Boomie, just ignore her and she will eventually go away".

"But Sol, what if she decides to take one of us? We never figured out what happened to Stopsky!"

Harry was dead sure that the voices were coming from the snakes, but that didn't make any sense, or did it? The magical world didn't seem to follow conventional muggle wisdom on such matters. "Um, is there any such thing as a talking snake?" He asked invoking a rather baffled look from Peter. "Not that I know of, but some wizards can understand and communicate with snakes through a magical language called Parstletongue. Several dark wizards, including You-Know-Who, spoke it, and consequently it is an ability that has a rather negative reputation in wizarding society, why do you ask? You are not thinking of sneaking a snake into Hogwarts, are you? Tanya served detention with professor Snape for that in first year extracting potions ingredients from dead snakes."

"No, I was just being curious, I want um, an owl." Said Harry, seizing on any excuse to divert the conversation. Voldemort's brother wand and now they could speak the same language with the animal decried by mankind since Adam and Eve? At this rate the wizarding world would think he is a dark lord in training or something!

"Then you will want to visit the Owl Emporium, they have a much better selection of owls, go figure; that's were Maxentius came from. How about you Hermione?" Asked Peter. Hermione shook her head, "No thank you, any pet I take with me to Hogwarts this year is liable to either die from neglect or live an attention depraved existence as I spend every ounce of spare time exploring the Hogwarts Library." The three youths, plus one reluctant snake enthusiast, thus made their way towards the owl shop closely followed by a toad who had been forgotten by its occasionally single-minded owner.

The welcoming feast had been a splendid affair of fine foods and a welcoming spirit Hermione never experienced before among children from her own age group. Even Harry's new owl seemed have had a blast chewing on the leftovers of the pork casserole. All in all, Hermione felt she could drift to sleep with a measure of contentedness she hadn't felt since the attack.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and forced her unwillingly out of bed. What is it?" she asked irritably, but the door to her temporary lodgings in the guest room opened before she could reach it, revealing Susan Fenwick, Tanya, Peter, and Harry at the entrance, though latter at least had the decency to look bashful at the thought of keeping her awake at this hour. "The Circle gathers tonight, you are called to join our ranks" whispered Susan, much to Hermione's bewilderment. "What she means is that you are invited to attend an initiation ceremony that has become something of a tradition with the magical kids of this house. Tanya and I need to retake at as well because we broke the rule last year." said Peter, clearly displeased with how ridiculous it all sounded, but resigned to the fact that he would have to go through the ritual.

Hermione was very tempted to tell them all to shove off, but the gaze of six purposeful eyes and two rather confused ones quickly brought the unspoken peer pressure to bear until she relented. "Good, put on your shoes, we are going outside the manor." Said Susan. The company of five children was soon joined by the younger kids as they all crept out of the house with a diligence that showed they had done this many a time before. They marched together on a trail through the surrounding forest, several kids holding flashlights tied up to polls to appear like ritualistic touches and light their path. "It's a shame really, a part of me enjoyed being able to keep secrets again," mumbled Tanya, much to Hermione's confusion, but before she could ask what she meant, the party finally reached its destination; an ancient stone circle not unlike Stonehenge if much smaller.

When Hermione passed by the stones of the circle, she shivered for the temperature around her felt much colder than before. The younger kids raced ahead and shoved in the makeshift touches to sockets tied on the standing stones. The new influx of light aimed at the circle's centre revealed an ominous looking archway Hermione had only seen in dreams. Susan Fenwick did not stop by the stones like the rest of the children but continued to walk towards the archway with no hint of stopping before she went right through it. "Stop! Don't go near that thing!" exclaimed Hermione, but it was already too late.

Note of the Amateur:

Due to the realities of student life, I couldn't find the time to write another chapter in May and this one might very well be the only one I write in June. I expect to have more time to write at the end of July when I expect to complete most of my exams. The story won't immediately turn to Hogwarts as I have a few ideas for stories the characters could pursue over the summer before term begins. My immediate intention is to explore Harry and Hermione's characters and introduce some of the OCs.

This chapter feels a bit like filler to me, but I felt I needed to give the characters some time off before they started their next adventure. Consequently, I decided to cut up this chapter in two in order to incorporate both aspects. I am still learning how to navigate serious scenes and more jovial ones, so I am unsure if the opening and closing scenes work all that well with the middle one. Reviews on that point would be welcome, and on that topic, I intend to move my answers out of the PM box and onto these notes.

Answers to Reviews:

Guest reviewer "Fast Frank": you will find an answer to your review on the notes of chapter 4 addressed to guest reviewer 3.

Guest review from the 15th of May: I thought Hermione would chew out Harry when I wrote that scene, it didn't feel right for her to do it. The resentment is there, but it would need a trigger to flow out, though one might present itself sooner rather than later. I am glad you enjoyed Madam Bones; she won't be in every chapter, as it would be rather odd for a busy ministry official to find that much time for a bunch of kids, but she will often be there when I need a character to give a voice of criticism against Dumbledore's machinations. I think I answered the possibilities with the Tonks family in this chapter, but I hadn't thought about incorporating Neville through Hermione's meeting with his parents. It is a good idea, so I may very well pick it up, but I am not sure how or when that would happen yet.

Thank you for your patronage,

A Lover of Nature.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling and any organization empowered by her to that effect own t Harry Potter title and its related products. Moreover, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.